Impressive Bologna look to prove top-four credentials against Atalanta

Bologna look to continue their impressive Serie A season when they host Atalanta on Saturday, as the man behind their success, Giovanni Sartori, aims for another footballing miracle.

Manager Thiago Motta is deservedly earning plenty of praise for his Bologna side's steady rise up the standings, as their 2-0 win over AS Roma last weekend took them to fourth place, but behind the scenes Sartori is the unsung hero.

The technical director is someone very familiar to Bologna's next opponents Atalanta and their manager Gian Piero Gasperini. Together Sartori and Gasperini took Atalanta from relegation strugglers to regular Champions League football.

At Atalanta, Sartori brought in Gasperini and they both took advantage of the club's excellent academy, as well as selling players for big money but always managing to replace them and improve the squad.

Sartori signed the likes of Robin Gosens, Ruslan Malinovskyi, Bryan Cristante, Duvan Zapata and Marten de Roon, providing Gasperini with the talent to take the club to new heights.

Before Atalanta, Sartori spent 12 years at Chievo Verona, taking them from obscurity in the third tier to the dizzy heights of European football, discovering talents such as Andrea Barzagli, Simone Perrotta, Nicola Legrottaglie and Amauri.

In 2022, after parting ways with Atalanta, Sartori arrived at Bologna. After a poor start to last season, he brought in Motta as manager, and they rose from battling relegation to a ninth place finish.

Now the pair look set to take the club even higher, with Sartori's signings of Lewis Ferguson, Joshua Zirkzee, Riccardo Calafiori, Remo Freuler and Sam Beukema impressing as Bologna continue their march up the table.

They have the third best defensive record in Serie A behind